As a child I was very active and always wanted to be outdoors. As an adult I’ve done marathons, triathlons and endurance events, and have been involved in the fitness industry since the 1980s, which means I’ve seen pretty much every fitness fad there is going, sometimes two or three times! During the years I spent running leisure centres and health clubs, I developed programmes that made exercise accessible and fun. 

I was one of the first women weight-training instructors in the UK and set up one of the earliest exercise referral programmes for those with medical conditions or poor health who needed to get active, and I also trained as a sports therapist and aromatherapist. It was when I was living in Chamonix in the French Alps that I had a revelation about walking.

 I walked more because driving and parking were difficult, and the alpine location meant I had to do a lot of uphill walking. Despite not ‘exercising’ as I used to, I found I was fitter and healthier, even though I was organising my daily walk around work, chores and visitors. I also found I noticed my environment and the changing seasons more, and realised that balancing physical  activity with breathing, mindfulness and yoga in the wild flower meadows meant that I was working my body holistically.

Since 2008, I have created walking-based programmes for fitness and wellness, and run a national walking club called WALX. We call walking that improves your mind and body in a holistic way ‘total body walking’, and we encourage people to be active and motivate them to try new things. 

My team and I have been teaching these programmes for several years, and we meet a lot of people who think walking is a waste of time, because they don’t consider it to be exercise. They are usually there as part of a workplace group or for a ‘discovery session’ and we marvel at how these reluctant joiners subsequently think the programme is one of the most valuable activity sessions they have ever done. 

That’s how I want my book to make you feel, too, and I want people to feel free to use it in whatever way they like. They can read each chapter in order or, once they’ve grasped the basics they can dip in and out. However, they do need to be ready to expand their horizons, so I ask them to make sure they have  got an open mind, a notebook and comfortable shoes.

So, come and walk with me to discover for yourself how effective walking is as an exercise technique and how powerful it can be for both your physical and mental health. Without further ado, it’s time to Walk This Way.